recreatingreality.com

Have you achieved everything you have wanted to achieve at this point in your life?  Or, are you stuck in a ditch on the side of life’s roadway?

We have all heard the sayings.  If you continue doing exactly what you are doing today for the next ten years will you be where you want to be?  Where will you be in ten years if you continue doing what you are doing today?

Most of us have been asked those questions at some point in time.  And, most of us thought that somehow life would change for us.  All we have to do is get up each morning.  Well, that’s about as close to BS as it gets.

The truth is that most of us spend more time selecting a dress each morning to wear to a job that we don’t like than we spend preparing for a new job.  We spend more time planning a weekend of hiking along the Blue Ridge Parkway than we spend planning our retirement.  We spend more time driving the kids to soccer practice and piano lessons than we spend updating our resumes and applying for a new job.

The other part of that truth is that while we are so busy with busy stuff and while we are procrastinating about our futures, life happens.  Why is it that most of us would rather drift through our lives taking what comes than create the life we want?

Let’s ask the hard question one more time.  Where will you be in ten years if you continue doing what you are doing today?  To quote Dr. Phil, “How is it working for you?”  If what you are doing today isn’t getting you where you want to be, if what you are doing today doesn’t bring joy into your life… DOING MORE OF WHAT DOES NOT WORK WILL NOT MAKE IT WORK BETTER!

This does not mean that you must immediately change everything in your life.  Of course, in some situations that could be most beneficial, but for the most of us we need to tweak our activities to change course.

For the sake of this example, let’s assume that you go to work everyday, sit in a cubicle doing whatever your job requires, spend your two fifteen minute breaks complaining about the job to a co-worker, and go home every afternoon totally exhausted.  You are so fatigued from sitting in your cubicle that you only have enough energy to eat dinner, wash the dishes, and flop down on the sofa to watch reruns of a program you didn’t like the first time you saw it.  Sound familiar?

If you continue doing that where will you be in ten years?  Chances are you will be in the same cubicle, doing the same boring tasks, perhaps earning a little more money, bored to death, and with less hope of getting out of the grind than you had ten years earlier. 

Just the thought of ten more years of the same old thing with no real life changes is enough to depress anyone.  If what you are doing today is not working for you, doing more of it won’t make it work better. 

It’s time to set a goal!  Start by dreaming.  All great ideas begin as a thought or a dream.  Engage in a little thinking time.  Indulge yourself.

Remember when you were a kid?  Your dreams soared!  You were going to become an astronaut or a doctor or a writer.  You were going to be “somebody.”  Well, the truth is that you are somebody, but you got lazy.  You settled for what life dumped on your plate.  And, rather than saying, “thanks, but no thanks” you decided to eat from the plate.  At first you thought that the next plate would be more to your liking, but sooner or later you adjusted to what life served up instead of creating your own plate filled with all the things you like.

For most of us, when we become adults we assume the responsibilities of adults.  We have been taught that getting a job, owning a house in a neat little neighborhood and having children is what life is all about.  Most of us don’t really like our jobs, are consumed by our mortgages, and sooner or later the kids grow up and leave us behind to seek their own slice of life’s pie.  And, the cycle continues.

Each and every human being has 24 hours in his or her day.  Twenty-four hours!  And, what do we do with our 24 hours?  Well, most of us get caught up in the trap of being responsible.  That’s what we are told we should be… responsible.  But, what does that mean?  According to the way most of us live, we are responsible for decent performance at a job we don’t really like, we are responsible for getting the kids off to school, making sure they get to gymnastics (or whatever).  We are responsible for cooking for the family.  We are responsible for cleaning the house.  And, we are responsible for performing other family and extended family obligations.  In fact, it is fair to say that we spend our lives living up to the expectations of others.

Remember your 24 hours?  Where did they go today, yesterday, and the day before?  If you think about it, most of us will confess that we gave them away.  How many times have you said to someone, “I would like to go to yoga class, but I don’t have time” or how many times have you seen a best seller at the book store, purchased it and never read it because you didn’t have time?  What happened to your twenty-four hours?  You gave them away to get approval from someone who expected you to do something for him or her.  You gave them away because you would feel guilty telling someone that you had other plans… your plans.  You gave them away to avoid a confrontation.

If you continue giving away your twenty-four hours each day where will you be in ten years?  You will be shackled to the place you are today.  Nothing will change except the year on the calendar.

When I was a child I had a hamster.  Don’t ask why.  I have no idea why I wanted that little creature, but I enjoyed Horatio.  And, I observed him.  Every day and every night Horatio would climb into his little hamster wheel and run like hell.  He would occasionally stop to pack his cheeks full of food, then get back on the wheel.  For the three years that I had Horatio he ran on that wheel every day.  He got absolutely nowhere, but he kept running.  To paraphrase a currently running commercial, I am not a hamster and life is not a wheel.  I stopped doing the things that didn’t work for me.  You can, too.

Let me say in closing that I am not writing this as a piece of philosophical gloom and doom.  I am encouraging everyone to think about his or her life.  I am encouraging everyone to take stock of what you are doing today and consider if you continuing doing the same thing over and over again, will it work any better for you?

Now, lean back in your chair and close your eyes.  Picture what you would like to be doing.  Picture your life as you wish it to be.  Dare to dream.